NEP Prevents Class-I Admission For Students Slightly Less Than Six Years of Age

SRINAGAR: A group of Jammu parents with school-aged children held a protest against the recently implemented National Education Policy. The demonstration, organized by the All Jammu Parents Association, was led by Amit Kapoor and took place at Hari Singh Park, reports reaching from Jammu said.

The parents were protesting against the new policy’s age limit requirement for admission into the first class. They argued that children who are currently in Upper KG or UKG, and whose ages fall just short of six years, are being denied entry into first grade.

During the protest, the parents chanted slogans against the policy and demanded that the minimum age limit for class I admission be relaxed. Amit Kapoor suggested that the age criteria should be implemented from nursery or pre-nursery and that children who are already studying should be admitted to first grade. Kapoor also urged Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to personally intervene and grant age relaxation, citing the Goa government’s decision to delay the implementation of the new policy until 2025-26.

The parents emphasized that the current policy had caused distress to many children and parents alike, and appealed for the sake of their children’s future.

Jammu and Kashmir implemented the National Education Policy that was rolled out in India in July 2020, and aims to revamp the country’s education system. One of the policy’s objectives is to ensure that every child receives high-quality education from an early age. To achieve this, the policy sets forth certain age limits for admission into various classes.

As per the current policy, children must be at least six years old to be admitted into class I. This criterion is based on research that suggests that children of this age are developmentally ready to transition from pre-primary education to formal schooling.

However, some parents have argued that this age limit is too rigid, and that it fails to take into account the individual developmental needs of each child. They contend that children who are slightly younger than six years old but have already completed UKG are just as capable of succeeding in class I as their peers who meet the age requirement.